- Good morning, everybody.

This is WKMH Dearborn and Detroit.

What do you do?

Oh, I have a disc jockey show.

Robin Seymour, Bobbin' with, oh yeah.

Recognized my name Dearborn station playing Little Richard records.

- As rock and roll came in, Robin was the guy.

- The big thing that was coming in was the change in music.

- When it became Keener 13, it was one thing only, play the hits.

- [Robin] I saw were television was going.

- [Art] Robin had already laid the groundwork when he was in radio.

- [Robin] We didn't know what we had.

We had so much at that time.

Stevie Wonder, everybody.

- And it was the hippest thing in town.

Swinging time, man.

- Robin was just an elemental part of the city's musical history.

♪ Baby ♪ Everything is all right ♪ Uptight ♪ Out of sight - "Detroit Remember When: Rockin' Robin Seymour."

I'm Steve Schram, executive director of Michigan Radio at the University of Michigan.

In the 60s, I was a listener and a viewer growing up in Livonia, a fan of Detroit's dynamic radio/TV icon Robin Seymour.

Back then, he was the host of a TV dance show called "Swingin' Time."

Sadly, we lost Robin spring 2020.

He was 94, a Detroit Central High School grad, a World War II vet, renowned radio personality, a disc jockey, he was proud to say.

This was back when disc jockeys helped build the foundation of the music scene we all know today.

He'd already made his mark on Detroit radio, starting at the station in Dearborn, then known as WKMH, and then at the legendary WKNR, Keener 13.

From there, it was time for television, "Swingin' Time," a show etched in the memories of so many Detroiters of a certain age.

For many of us who spent our careers in broadcasting, Robin Seymour's story is so important, but we fear it might be forgotten.

Well, we want to change that.

His life touched so many, including the performers from Johnnie Ray to Little Willie John, to the entire stable of Motown acts, to Bob Seger and the MC5.

Here's Part One of "Detroit Remember When: Rockin' Robin Seymour."

(bright big band music) - [Interviewer] Did you always want to be in radio?

- [Robin] Oh gosh, yeah.

When I was nine years old, I had the bug.

I grew up listening to comics, "Terry and the Pirates."

- [Narrator] She's coming this way.

I can see her here.

- "Jack Armstrong: The All-American Boy," "Little Orphan Annie."

I can remember running home every day from school and listening to Martin Block, and "The Make Believe Ballroom" from WNEW in New York City, and I would sit there and I patterned my speech after him.

♪ I'll dance at your wedding I was a real radio buff, listening to the big bands at night.

♪ I'll dance at your wedding Ed McKenzie gave me my first job when I was like 15 or so at WJBK.

I was on Sunday nights from midnight to six on a program they called "Corn Till Morn."

Isn't that great?

(laughs) Play transcriptions.

Ed McKenzie he was a chief announcer, and I'll never forget.

One night he came back, it was about two in the morning.

He had been out in the town celebrating, I think.

And he came into the studio.

He says, "By the way, kid.

Do you plan to continue doing this for the rest of your life?"

Says, yes.

He said, "Don't.

You're on the outside looking in.

You'll never make it."

And I sat there and I'm holding back tears, but it worked in reverse.

I got so angry after, says, I'm gonna show this guy.

- [Lone Ranger] Hi-yo Silver, away.

- Well, I was lucky.

- [Robin] I did a few things on the "Lone Ranger" show.

- [Lone Ranger Announcer] With a hearty hi-yo Silver, the Lone Ranger.

- "The Lone Ranger" was a nationally distributed radio show coast to coast.

It was produced right here in Detroit, WXYZ.

- [Interviewer] How did you get that?

- Auditioned, and my best buddy Mickey Tusho auditioned and was Kato on "The Green Hornet."

- Robin Seymour went to Detroit Central High School, graduated in 1943.

This would have been right smack in the middle of World War II, and he was drafted into the armed services.

- He served his two years.

You know, '44 to the end of the war.

He was in Armed Forces Radio, but he did have some battle experience.

He was coming out of the foxhole walking with his troops, and the guy in front of them got shot and died, and if he hadn't been in front of him it would have been Dad.

- When I got back from the service overseas in 1946, I was going to Wayne University at that time.

Not Wayne State, it wasn't Wayne State.

They only had two buildings back then.

I had a year in before I got drafted, and then I went back.

A group of us formed a repertory theater.

We were going to be the world's greatest actors.

See, I wasn't thinking radio, really, but I wanted to be on stage and be an actor.

I needed to earn some money.

I was doing acting around the city, you know, some radio commercials, et cetera, and so I bumped into this guy at Wayne in the Wayne University Broadcasting Guild, and he say, "Hey, they're looking for an announcer at this new daytime radio station in Dearborn, Michigan."

And I said, good, I'll go out and see.

And he says, "They're not paying any money."

He says, "They're paying about 90 cents an hour."

I says, I don't care.

At that time, the station was called WKMH.

- WKMH on 1310, licensed to Dearborn, hired Robin early on when it was over a furniture store in Dearborn.

- 1947.

My folks thought I was nuts.

90 cents an hour.

Good morning, everybody.

This is WKMH, Dearborn and Detroit.

♪ Bob-Bobbin' went the robin ♪ For a long, long time - His real name was Seymour Samuel Altman.

He changed his name because he felt that it was better professionally.

- So when I started disc jockey, so Robin Seymour is the name I use.

- And for a long time, sadly, anybody with an ethnic name, whether it was Italian, whether it was Jewish, whether it was Polish, whatever it was, you weren't allowed to go on the air with it.

- Dearborn was all white, you know, very Christian-based neighborhood.

But he did mention that he experienced a lot of prejudice about his religion because he was Jewish.

That was a difficult thing for his family, I know, to have him change his name.

- Fred Knorr was one of these guys.

It was just total energy and a total businessman.

He talks some friends, relatives, into investing in the radio business, and bought WKMH AM.

They did a lot of stuff on that station.

- Fred Knorr was, "Great, it makes 90 cents an hour."

About a month after, he said, "I'm taking that salary away and giving you a 300 a month."

Oh, wonderful.

A few months later, he calls me in.

He says, "I'm taking your salary away and I'm going to give you 50 cents on every commercial that's on your show."

Wow.

Few months later, he calls me back, and says, "I want you to help the salesman.

You know a lot of people.

You go out and meet them, tell them about you, and if they're interested in buying time, and from now on, you get 10% on everything on your show."

So everybody was happy.

Fred Knorr was that type of a person.

- Fred Knorr was the broadcaster who figured out that he could get licenses all across the state of Michigan.

He was in Flint.

He was in several other places.

WKMH was his flagship.

It also was the flagship station for the Detroit Tigers because Fred Knorr was a part-owner.

♪ Get it all here on 1310 - We lived by our AM radios back then.

- [Robin] You coming home from work?

I want you to drive carefully.

Take it cool.

Mama's waiting for dinner for you.

- A friend of mine says, "You know, you need a gimmick."

He says, "Like a guy in Cleveland that I know has a gimmick.

And like, you need a gimmick."

He's the one that said Bobbin' with Robin.

So come on along and let's everybody have a ball.

♪ Bobbin' with the Robin ♪ No more time for sobbing - I believe it was Four Lads.

♪ Everybody ♪ Fly ♪ Sky high - And I was known in the industry.

In 1953, four, five and six, I think it was, I was in "Billboard," one of the top 10 disc jockeys in the country.

I mean, that was known.

Robin is your "Bobbin' with Robin," and this is WKMH Dearborn with studios atop the Townhouse Hotel in Detroit, the radio hub of our motor city.

- I think my first recollection was of him doing the radio show from the house, and me standing around the table, and I realized my dad is on the radio.

♪ 1310 - I got to be real snobbish and real smart alecky, you know.

I started to get all that recognition, you know, fame and fortune.

♪ From Detroitland One day, it's snowing out, and I'm going down joy road, hit a pole.

I come in late.

He says, "Close the door.

Sit down.

You were late today."

Yes, sir, I know, the snow.

"Wait a minute.

I don't care how you get here, but when you go on the air, you be on time.

I don't care if you drive, I don't care if you crawl, I don't care if you fly.

If you're late one more time, don't even bother to come in.

Keep in mind, kid, I own the microphone.

I can take it away anytime I want to."

I have never been late ever again.

I think that's why I always called him Mr.

Knorr.

(laughs) ♪ If your heart - When you think back, Robin's influence was so profound because in 1950, he said he got a call from Al Green, who was the guy who ran the Flame show bar, not the singer.

He wanted Robin to come down late one night to see this crazy skinny white kid.

He said, "You got to see this kid.

He's crazy, and the crowd loves him."

And the crowd was an all-Black crowd, and it was very discriminating.

(Jonnie Ray singing "Cry") And he was panting away at the piano.

He had this incredible rock and roll energy before there was such a thing as rock and roll.

- Dad really never held a grudge, and that's the only one that he really, you know, felt bad about was the Johnnie Ray business that he felt he was really taken advantage of with that.

And he talked about that until the day he died.

- And a lot of the moving, the movement you saw Elvis do in his prime, that came directly from Johnnie Ray, that flailing the legs, that real sexy kind of move.

(Little Johnnie Ray singing "Cry") Well, he was doing it in Detroit, and nobody knew who he was, and he had no contract.

Robin was so blown away by this that the next day he called a friend of his at A&R at Columbia, and the guy came in.

He not only signed him, he wanted to get him in the recording studio.

So he got him in the studio here in Detroit.

♪ Have faith in all kinds of weather ♪ - Dad worked really hard getting this guy seen and heard, and you know, made the calls and the guy that signed him and Johnnie Ray, they took off and he was verbally given a contract to be his agent and to have a part of his success.

And it never happened.

- Robin was in on the ground floor of discovering Johnnie Ray, who directly led to the wild, abandoned sound of rock and roll.

(audience applauding) ♪ Roll over, Beethoven ♪ Dig these rhythm and blues - [Robin] Oh yeah, that was a real mover.

Chuck Berry.

Hey, by the way, Chuck Berry is coming to the Riviera Theater in three weeks.

Tell you more about it later.

- He always had a youthful kind of verve.

He always sounded younger than he was, and he was very, he had that effervescence to his voice.

He would get you excited.

- [Robin] For the best in pop tune favorites.

- He could listen to a record and say, this guy is going to be great or this gal's going to be great.

- I had a good music sense, let me put it to you that way.

- No, he definitely had an ear.

Occasionally he'd be wrong, but not very often.

- He always was good at picking out who was going to be good and who wasn't.

But we always laughed because he couldn't have been that great, because when he heard Elvis Presley, he said, "This guy's gonna bomb," And so that was not the case.

- I mean, the records we were playing, I mean, I'll give you an idea.

I don't even know what happened.

I remember playing a record by an artist called Bull Moose Jackson.

♪ I love you, yes, I do And probably the first record by a Black person that was ever played on a radio station in Detroit, other than, I think the only other station there was WJLB, but I dug it.

It was a sound.

- He knew, you liked the song, it didn't matter, you know, what color their skin was to groove on the music.

- To be able to shift beyond what they were playing in those days, the Frank Sinatras and the Tony Bennetts, and to move that into it was called race music at the time.

It was Black artists and they're on the radio.

Oh my goodness, this is unheard of.

- Here's a young man having a ball, Little Willie John from our City of Wheels to do his big movin' hit "Fever."

And I would go into play a Johnny Cash, And then we'd play a Little Richard.

Nobody ever heard of him.

Dearborn station playing Little Richard records.

- That was during those times kind of a bold move.

- So he was getting R&B in.

He was slipping it in before any other disc jockey in Detroit, really.

♪ So hard to bear ♪ You give me fever That was just a revolutionary thing to do.

An incredible gift to listeners in Detroit.

It really started to become more and more common, and as rock and roll came in, he was the guy.

♪ All through the night - Fred Knorr, he used to get a lot of flack when he'd go down to the DAC, the Detroit Athletic Club.

These guys would say, "Hey, I hear those Black records all the time that are being played on your station.

Now, what's going on, Fred?"

He would come back to me, and say, "Robin, could you sorta lighten up a little bit?"

He didn't care, but he was a little bit felt funny about that, you know?

These good old straight-laced white dudes down at the DAC really tried to give him the knife, you know.

Fred, to his feeling, would say, "You know, this is making us money.

Obviously this is what people want to hear.

So go for it, kiddo, go for it."

♪ A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom ♪ That's one of today's top tunes, Little Richard and "Tutti Frutti."

- He felt real close to the audience, so, you know, I also think that it was, he was one of the first guys to really want the opinion of the kids.

- You know, every afternoon, we take the Flyer of the Day, Robin's Flyer of the Day, we think is going to go on to become a great big hit.

"Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"

Kids would come up and sit there on the floor in the other studio and they'd dance and do their homework.

- You know, the thing that Robin was able to do, he was able to gain the trust of his audience.

♪ Why do fools fall in love And that's a very hard thing to do and a very delicate thing to keep, but once you get it, you can lead your audience to places that maybe they don't even want to go, or they don't even know about.

- You pick out your own records, you either stood or fell on what you could bring to the audience.

And I was young enough to be close enough to the teenage kids to still be thinking like them.

- Robin Seymour, a disc jockey often compared to another rock and roll pioneer, Alan Freed, bringing us the biggest hits of the day on our AM radio, starting in the '50s and into the sound of the '60s, and Robin would be an essential ambassador to the Detroit rock and roll scene when it would become even bigger.

For many of us, he was the one to lead us to it.

Coming up, how Top 40 radio came to dominate many of our lives in the '60s, and Robin's move to television as "Detroit Remember When: Rockin' Robin Seymour" continues.

"Detroit Remember When: Rockin' Robin Seymour."

Imagine national recording stars coming to your high school courtesy of Robin Seymour.

That really did happen in the 1960s, and there was Robin on TV.

Millions worldwide have seen the clips from his teen dance show on the web.

Those clips, the few that do exist, oh, they're granny, they're hard to see, but they're artifacts of Detroit's cultural history and they still capture the energy of that time.

Let's find out how it all started, that Motor City extravaganza known as "Swingin' Time."

(energetic rock music) - What do you do?

Oh, I have a disc jockey show, Robin Seymour, Bobbin' with, Oh yeah!

You know, recognized by name.

♪ Ooh wee Of course, kids would know who you were from the record hops.

I was probably the first one that started record hops, And that's where we got to be known.

I mean, every Friday, and Art would book them for me.

♪ She's so fine, fine, fine - Back then, there were what we called record hops, sock hops in gyms and little clubs.

- And they'd charge these kids 10 cents to get in.

- We would pack in a thousand young people in an evening.

- Kids would come to a school dance that were nowhere near attending that school.

♪ Playboy, find yourself another toy ♪ - You know, we'd always mention on the radio show, don't forget tonight, we're going to be out at Garden City High, and Stevie Wonder is gonna be there, so be sure you get there early.

- Singers realized that that was an audience.

Hey, we can do this.

Gino Washington.

- [Gino] Everybody wanted a record hop.

- "Gino is a Coward."

He just had a personality that drew in people.

- If Robin Seymour felt that your record had merit, he would go 'head and play it every hour on the hour.

♪ When it comes to love - There you go back to Motown, every Motown act.

- How many people would believe that we had The Supremes at a record hop?

- It was such great fun, and they'd come and lip sync.

- A dollar.

- Kids would go crazy.

♪ He gave me the arm - These kids can go spend the whole evening for a dollar.

- They would do like say Donald Paul's record hop or Lee Alan's record hop, and mine.

We would have a schedule.

- If he was starting another one, I would be someplace else starting that one until he could get there.

- He was everywhere.

You know, he'd work during the day, and then at night he'd be at another sock hop.

- And he would go from one venue to three or four in one night.

- They paid me.

I made more money doing record hops.

- They were making good money back then.

I had no complaint.

(bright pop music) - [Robin] Ladies and adventurers on the Robin Seymour Show, with "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue."

- Now the sad part of the story is that Fred Knorr unexpectedly died, leaving his wife Nelly in charge of this vast broadcast empire.

- Detroit was an incredible market, lots of good talent and lots of good stations.

WXYZ, WJBK.

Ratings at CKLW were not particularly great.

The ratings at XYZ, not bad.

- WKMH was a station that never fully achieved its potential, and that's because it was fragmented.

- AMH was like middle of the road.

- Depending upon who the disc jockey was that was on the air, the format was totally different.

- WKMH was floundering, having all kinds of problems.

- I used to tell people we were Number 11 in a 10-station market.

- Now, Robin's ratings were good.

He had this innate sense for what the listeners wanted.

- Then KMH, Bob Green had come in, and he really tried to get them to go on more of a Top 40 direction.

Robin was there.

He was along for the ride.

- I believe it was Nellie that went to Robin, and say, "Well, what do you think?

What can we do?"

- I says we've gotta be Top 40.

We've got to get the new jingles again.

We've got to get the young voices in there.

It's gotta be fast-moving.

- As usually happens in broadcasting, they needed to get an outside point of view, and one day it makes the announcements.

I just hired Mike Joseph.

He's the genius.

He's a consultant.

He can make us overnight number one.

- Well, they paid him a ton of money to come up with the same idea and execute the same said ideas.

- Nellie Knorr had the guts to try this Top 40 thing when probably a lot of her people at the club were telling her don't do this.

You're gonna ruin our children.

- And in came Top 40.

- Mike Joseph came up with a call letters WKNR.

♪ Louie, Louie And what is that for?

Knorr.

- It was later, they realized that, hey, that could spell Keener.

♪ Keener 13 - It was just the most exciting thing you could ever hear.

I know because I heard that first show Halloween of 1963.

- It's when it became Keener 13.

It was one thing only.

Play the hits.

- 31 songs.

That's all they played.

- 13 on the dial, turn the number around, 31 songs on the survey.

- The big thing that was coming in was the change in music.

♪ It's been a hard day's night - And that's how WKNR happened.

It captured the moment.

- [DJ] The Beatles in Detroit, a WKNR exclusive.

- It took off immediately.

I've never seen it in my life.

- That's when it changed.

And that's when the station went, as they say in the business back then, anyway, from worst to first 13.

♪ We're going to have a contest ♪ ♪ On Keener 13 - All the promotions, all the contests, "WKNR Presents," WKNR does this, does that.

- And to an extent, a lot of us didn't think Robin fit.

- [Announcer] Robin Seymour, Jerry Goodwin.

- Being the age he was, everybody said, my God, a disc jockey at 40.

(whistles) Ah, that's really old, man.

(laughs) - Robin, because he was on from nine till noon, was very popular with the housewife.

- My audience now were all the homemakers were now, not kids, and all the new audience.

♪ Something tells me I'm into something good ♪ ♪ Something, something, I'm into something ♪ It's time for a Swingin' Time special.

- At the one time, Detroit was the sixth-largest market in the United States in the media.

There were clubs all over the place, entertainment, the restaurants.

I mean, this was a happening city, and they brought in entertainment.

- Well, I saw the handwriting on the wall for me.

There was nowhere I could go.

- Robin Seymour was not happy at all.

The new management came in and graciously offered to take away Robin's, I think it was 10% of the advertising that he was getting.

In other words, basically cutting his pay.

- I could have stayed at a station and play records the rest of my life, perhaps.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

But I saw where television was going.

I mean, that was in its infancy, especially I saw what Ed McKenzie did and Bud Davies did and so forth.

And I wanted something similar to that.

- "Dick Clark's Bandstand," that was coming in, and XYZ had "Club 1270."

- I was very jealous and upset when these guys did their dance party shows, and I'm sitting there, couldn't do it because I wasn't with a TV station.

- And we decided let's get together and see what we can do here, so we formed a company and came up with the name "Teen Town."

- We waked into CKLW, Channel 9, which at the time was owned by RKO General, and I made the presentation.

We have a program called "Teen Town."

It's going to salute all the high schools every week.

We're going to have another high school.

We'll have the kids sitting in bleachers, sitting around with their pom-poms and the gals with their cheerleader outfits and all that kind of stuff.

And we'll have recording artists perform and so forth, and by the way, we've got it practically all sold.

Federal department stores, 7UP.

So we had it pre-sold because for my radio, and I told him the idea.

He says, well, if you're going to go for it, fine.

So what it was, and this will really blow your mind, he said, "That's a great idea, but we can't pay much money.

We can give you $500 for doing the show."

Said, we'll take it.

Oh, wonderful being with you again on "Teen Town," live every Saturday.

- The nice part about it, even though he was older than the young people, we were doing the show for, they look at him like one of their own, the people who danced on the show, the talent who came on the show.

The nice part about it was that Robin had already laid the groundwork when he was first starting out in radio.

- When he started "Teen town," we started to draw from all of the Motown artists.

Go ahead, buddy, it's all yours, ah, yeah.

Namely, Little Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and the Marvelettes, ♪ Into these hearts ♪ Some tears might fall and then of course a little group known as The Supremes.

And we put them on and the exposure just grew and grew and grew.

- Barry Gordy basically got a pipeline to Windsor in those days.

He had an artist, he would send them over.

They're coming to Windsor, coming on your show.

- And the youngsters were dancing to our music and just making us feel right at home in Windsor.

♪ Come on, do the jerk ♪ Come on, do the jerk - They became household names, and they made our show that much better.

(teens applauding) - Oh my.

I want to thank you all.

We'll see you next week.

- Ed Metcalf who was station manager at Channel 9 came to work and said, "Look, you know, I'm doing this on a freelance basis with you guys.

Why don't we do it full-time?

Why don't you just come to work for us and be on our staff?"

- "We'd like you to do a summer type show.

We're gonna call it Swingin' Summertime," Monday through Friday.

Would you like to do that?"

I said, heck yeah, that'd be great.

- The challenge was that he was going to host this television show, and the Keener management did not want him on that station because they wanted exclusively on Keener.

- He says, "Well, just make up your mind."

I says, It's made up.

I'm leaving.

And from that, we did "Swingin' Time."

(bright R&B music) - I remember hopping in the car and, you know, driving across the bridge, and they stop and they'd look in and they'd say, "Oh, Mr.

Seymour, how are you doing?

Okay, go on.

Go ahead."

- I mean, it was the hippest thing in town, "Swingin' Time," man.

- I think practically every teenage kid watched that show at one time or another.

Here now, another thing that's taken off like crazy in our area, "Swingin' Time" proud to present Bob Seger and the Last Heard.

Let's go, everybody.

We didn't know what we had, and we had so much at that time.

- Bob Seger, a mainstay of the show.

♪ Beneath the bare light bulb above ♪ ♪ Gazed into the eyes of love - For many artists, the first time they got any TV exposure was in Windsor, Ontario on "Swingin' Time" with Robin Seymour.

♪ If we work out somehow maybe ♪ We could find a way out, baby ♪ - It looks like Bob is dressed like a cross between Smokey Robinson and Bob Dylan.

He's wearing this satin shirt that looks like Smokey.

He's got this newsboy hat that looks like Dylan.

- When you were a Detroiter and you knew it was happening like right over there, and you'll wish you could be there.

♪ Ah Jenny Jenny Jenny ♪ Won't you come along with me ♪ Jenny, Jenny, woo, Jenny, Jenny ♪ - It was a breakthrough.

It was at a time when radio was still the powerhouse.

You couldn't really break somebody on TV, but you sure could like move their career along.

- The Rationals and "Respect," let's go.

- So we're probably on "Swingin' Time" like 20 times, and Robin Seymour took a liking to us.

- The Rationals with the first version of "Respect" we ever heard.

That was before Aretha.

♪ What you want, honey, you got it ♪ - Scotty Morgan and the Rationals out of Ann Arbor, they became heroes on our show.

♪ Just a little respect when I come home ♪ ♪ Hey, hey ♪ Hey, hey, hey - It was just a diverse scene of music.

- You got the chance to be on the show with the national people.

♪ And I said ♪ Goody galum-shus ♪ Like cherry pie - When you ever see some of these old rock and roll shows on TV, going back to the oldies, much of that footage was from our show.

We're proud of these wonderful young people, and here they are on "Swingin' Time," the Shades of Blue.

- You'd have the national hits, but then you'd have these great regional sounds.

- It was just coming from all over the Midwest, Detroit, Michigan scene.

♪ Oh, how happy ♪ You have made me - If you were to take the broad sweep of shows of that ilk, the thing that made this show "Swingin' Time" significant was Detroit.

- Local talent, the Reflections, they had a big hit with "Romeo & Juliet."

- We did a lot of stuff for Robin.

We did a lot of shows.

When we did them, they used tape, and that tape was very expensive.

- Big two-inch spools, you know what I mean?

That weighted a ton put onto these big machines.

- Every show was taped over.

We'd went too far back.

Our shows don't exist anymore.

- But as we went on, some of this stuff was saved.

♪ You know I love those little things ♪ ♪ That I hear ♪ It's true ♪ Here's me without you ♪ I die each time ♪ I hear this sound ♪ Here he comes ♪ That's Cathy's clown - How do you stage?

I mean, it got to the point where depending on the act, how you want to present them in just a little setting, a big theatrical presentation.

♪ Show a little tenderness before you go ♪ ♪ Please let me feel your embrace once more ♪ ♪ Take me in your arms ♪ And rock me, rock me a little while ♪ ♪ Just waiting for you ♪ I don't know what else to do ♪ Dog is a good old cat ♪ Dog is a good old cat ♪ People, what you think of that ♪ ♪ People, what you think of that ♪ ♪ Come on, Sloopy ♪ Come on, come on ♪ Well, come on, Sloopy ♪ Come on, come on ♪ Well, come on, Sloopy - And you could tell they were lip-syncing, but it was a different time and a different place.

- Of, course you pantomimed because they didn't have equipment to actually sing live on television.

- Trying to do something live is just not going to happen.

- In the absence of any alternative, it was just fine.

♪ Aw, tell the truth ♪ Don't lie to me ♪ Have you been step, step, step, step, ♪ ♪ Step, step, steppin' out on me ♪ ♪ Agent man ♪ Giving you a number ♪ And taking way your name ♪ I guess ♪ You'd say ♪ What can make me feel this way ♪ ♪ My girl, my girl - It was fun every day, and my partner Art Cervi, without him taking care of the kids, putting the show together every day with me, we wouldn't have a show.

("My Girl" by the Temptations) ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ Hey, hey - We are having such a good time bringing you these memories from so many who wanted to contribute to Robin's story.

There's more to tell and the hits just keep on coming.

Stay with us as we continue with "Detroit Remember When: Rockin' Robin Seymour" in just a bit.

"Detroit Remember When: Rockin' Robin Seymour" continues now.

We've been looking at highlights from "Swingin' Time" hosted by Detroit's own media and music legend Robin Seymour.

He appeared six days a week on TV in Detroit in the mid- to late-1960s.

Here now, more highlights, and then some final thoughts.

♪ Come on, baby - James Brown, bring it on, bring it on.

- You know, it was people like James Brown nationally that he would have on the show, but Robin brought those artists to us.

- Isn't that something?

- Another one was Wayne Cochran who was never the biggest star in the world, but you know, he gave this guy a chance.

- Tear it up, Wayne.

♪ Oh, yeah - On the same show with Wayne, Question Mark and the Mysterians, Richard and Young Lions.

That's a jam-packed show.

♪ Move it to the left ♪ And move for yourself - He was nuts.

He was great.

- Kind of like James Brown look, except he was white.

♪ If it takes all night - Look at this guy with a big blonde bouffant.

- Big-old pappadeaux haircut.

♪ With a whole lot of soul - He was a star with that big hair, and he was just nice as could be.

- He is a legend.

(laughs) - He was just nasty, but his music was just crazy cool.

- Now I'm looking back on it saying it's crazy.

At the time, it was like normal.

Wow, this is great.

What does Robin have in store?

("96 Tears" by Question Mark and the Mysterians) ♪ Too many teardrops ♪ For one heart to be crying - I remember Q with his glasses on and the rest of the band looked like a group of little Mexican guys.

♪ You're way on top now They had a great record and they were just falling into their superstardom.

- The whole band was practicing, and I started going from G to C trying to learn the power chord and Frankie, the keyboard player, he started playing keyboards to it.

Eddie started playing the drums.

It was all of a sudden we had the band going with the whole song, and Question Mark started singing, and Question Mark said, "I'm thinking about calling Too Many Teardrops."

Eddie Serrato said, "Why don't we give it a number?"

And I asked him, I said, what do you mean by a number?

And he said, "Like 69 tears."

And I said, get off that (voice muffled by music).

So he said, "Well, let's turn the numbers around."

♪ 96 tears I was 16 years old when we recorded "96 Tears."

We used to play a lot of teen dances all over Michigan.

We played in Saginaw and Bay City, and we used to play in Mount Holly, and that's how we became a pretty popular.

It was before, even, our record came out.

- We're very proud of the record "Swingin' Time" has made by introducing new hits to this area and all over the country like this next one, Richard and the Lions with "Open Up Your Door."

Come on, everybody.

- We had the hit record in Detroit, but we were in fact a New Jersey band, and we were not known in New Jersey.

Unknown.

(laughs) ♪ Left you at eight ♪ Came back at nine I was 18 years old.

Everybody else in the band was 18, and Richard was 19.

They were looking for the name of the band, and they picked The Young Lions after the movie with Marlon Brando.

He was in "The Young Lions."

The Young Lions, and Richard was the singer.

At night, we would listen to radios from Detroit on CKLW.

We'll be sending you a here now.

Number one, Richard, All of a sudden, you'd hear, "Now, number one, Richard and The Young Lions, Open Up Your Door," and we went crazy.

♪ An hour can be ♪ Such a long long time - There's a song that Bob Crewe, I think, produced for Richard and The Young Lions.

Another act in Detroit kind of took over his attention.

- They had Mitch Ryder with Detroit Wheels, The 4 Seasons, and Richard and The Young Lions.

With that group, we didn't get what we deserved.

♪ I wanna love you some more ♪ Come on now and open up your door ♪ ♪ I said I "Open Up Your Door" could have been a monster hit right across the country, 'cause everywhere it got played, it was a hit.

- So, Richard and The Young Lions kind of got a bum deal nationally.

- The whole thing from the first single, the band breaking up was six months.

Boom.

It broke up.

Sad but true.

Woe is me.

That's what happened.

♪ I, I, I, I - I, I, there it is.

Richard and The Lions, "Open Up Your Door."

♪ Tender charm 'cause I'm lonely ♪ ♪ Just a little bit louder ♪ Do the duck ♪ Just a little bit louder - One thing about Robin Seymour's show, it attracted a lot of kids who loved to dance.

Dancing was a unifying thing.

♪ Do the duck ♪ Do the duck ♪ Hey, do the duck - Jackie Lee, that was just great, Jackie.

Do the duck, that's a real craze.

Everybody, did you see the gang doing it for you?

- It'd be hard for us to find people of a certain vintage in Detroit who either were on "Swingin' Time" or will tell you they were, and you can't prove it either way.

That was the place to be for a time in Detroit.

- [Robin] Let's get a number one song, okay buddy?

- I hope so.

Thank you, Robin.

- Thank you, Jackie Lee, everybody.

- We would watch not only the special guests, because most of the show was playing records, and, you know, watching the dancers.

- Let's go with Fontella Bass and "Rescue Me."

- And Robin would do a little of this on stage, you know, pardon me, because I can't do this on stage or off.

- I think originally we ask around to get an audience.

- I published a paper called "The Teen News" at the time.

Robin said, "Aw, man.

You're just a guy I wanted to talk to."

He called me, he says, "Can you get some kids together?

We're gonna do a TV show.

Can you get them over?"

I says, yeah, I'll get a hold of my daughter and ask her if she can bring her school friends, and we'll get them on there.

- A few of my friends and I, we would walk over the bridge and make sure we got there on time.

So we could get in the bathroom and get all pretty before the show.

♪ Feeling groovy - It started when I was 14 years old, - My twin sister Leona and I were big fans of any dance show.

- We would race home every day after school so we could watch "Swingin' Time."

- How ya doing?

- And I said, let's go on the show.

- Why not?

Let's go line up.

You know?

And it was all done here in Windsor.

- After it aired a few times and the word got out, then the kids really start showing up.

- My sister and I looked at each other.

We said, we'll never get in.

- He'd get up to 200 kids a day over there.

- We had to virtually turn people away.

The studio would only hold maybe 40, 50 at the time.

- Then we became so-called regulars.

- They said the twins from "Swingin' Time."

That's what they called us.

- Art Cervi would come out and wave us in.

- Twins and their dance partners, come on.

- I didn't think I was a great dancer, but there was a lot of friends, boy, oh boy.

They were fantastic.

- In the '60s, you know, when we went on that show, it was like a melting pot.

I mean, even though there was all this discord in the United States, the kids on that show got along, and a lot of the Canadian kids wanted to learn some of the Detroit steps.

- When we started, "Swingin' Time," was predominantly white.

As the year went, and the next year and the next year, I would say we were maybe 60/40 or 50/50.

Yeah.

And the kids had a ball.

- [Interviewer] Was it intentional or it just happened?

- No, just happened.

Not intentional at all.

To me, I never even bothered to notice, to be honest with you.

- My best friends were Black, you know, and their best friends were white.

- One unifying factor was dancing, you know, music and dance.

And everybody liked music.

Everybody liked dance.

We all got along.

♪ Don't touch that dial ♪ Leave it on the station - You became a recognizable face.

- They became stars in their own right just from being on the show.

- I got lots and lots of fan mail.

- When you leave the show, they give you this bag.

- Robin would bring a bag in, and say, "You're getting more fan mail than I am."

- Don't touch that dial.

I'll be back in a little while.

- The twins from "Swingin' Time."

One of the highlights of my life.

The fun we had was immeasurable.

(teens cheering) ♪ Jimmy Mack ♪ Jimmy, oh Jim - [Woman Interviewer] Did you want to talk about when you were at the Fox Theater?

- Nah.

- [Interviewer] What's that?

- I don't know if you want to get into that.

- [Interviewer] What is that?

- Well, the riots since 1967- - [Interviewer] Go, please, please touch on it.

- We used to do a show every year, "Swingin' Time Revue" at the Fox Theater, And then, you know, you remember the Motown Revue every, the holidays.

Well, the "Swingin' Time Revue" was a lot of fun.

And this was July of 1967.

- Robin Seymour booked a show.

We had the Soul Brothers, we had The Dramatics.

We had quite a few local acts, but the thing that I remember most that we were starring that show.

We were the headliners.

♪ Jimmy Mack ♪ Jimmy We're getting ready to debut our "Jimmy Mack."

- Jimmy Mack had been kept in the can for four years until they felt like it was time to release it.

♪ Oh, Jimmy Mack ♪ When are you coming back And what happens?

We are at the Fox Theater getting ready to sing "Jimmy Mack" for the first time to our audience in Detroit.

- And as you know, the Fox Theater's the second-largest theater in the country at the time.

Radio City Music Hall had 5,500 seats, Fox Theater at 5,300 seats.

We started Sunday.

We noticed there's about 800 in the theater.

And then the second show, we'd look out the curtain and see there's, gee, it didn't look like many more at third show, but one in the afternoon, still nope.

Just what's going on?

This is our big day.

Somebody come in, and he said, I understand there's some problems out on 12th Street.

Police came in right down the aisle, says, we've got to close this down.

Came backstage, and Martha was going on next.

- Robin Seymour beckons me to the side of the stage, and he says, "Martha, there's sirens.

There's a riot that's broken out.

We've got to tell the people to leave the theater quietly and in an orderly manner."

- And she got up on the stage, and she said, "Okay, boys and girls, I don't want you to worry.

There's some problems.

We're going to stop right now.

Your moms and dads are going to come here and get you and take you home and so forth and so on because there's had some problems.

We can't go on with the show."

- So I was able to go and have the crowd leave quietly and then attend to the youngsters who had been left in our dressing room by the parents.

Parents would bring their children and leave them with us so they could stay in our dressing room during the intermission and come out in the theater and see the show again.

And we had to attend to the youngsters.

- A bunch of us went down, got in front of the theater.

I'm wondering, and looked around.

And it was like, it reminded me of my first day in combat when I was in, in France.

It was, there was a quiet, a sick quiet over the city, and you could see puffs of smoke.

And we looked at each other, and it was so frightening.

I remember driving home.

At that time, we lived in Allen Park.

Got on Southfield.

There was only three or four cars there.

And the next day we couldn't go on the air.

They played tapes on Tuesday.

Called me from the station, and he says, well, why don't we try to put something on in place?

I says, yes, I'd like to.

We got down there.

Of course, nobody from Detroit came that day, and there might've been a curfew or something.

I don't know, but we had about 25 kids.

And I remember saying something about it.

It was just a sad, sad thing.

I mean, and from that moment, I think things totally changed.

Totally changed the feeling of the city.

And we'll have the MC5 back, Billy Sha-Rae The Bump, and many more, - One of the first things that I think Robin and I first learned, you cannot please everyone, so don't even try.

Just try to do the best that you can.

- The new management came in and called me into the office, and said, "Robin, we're going to let you stay on for another 30 days because we're going to look for a more youthful image."

- It was just a different time, a different era that was ending.

It was sort of when music started to become more psychedelic, a little wilder.

♪ But when you try to be free they never let ya ♪ ♪ They said it's easy, nothing to it ♪ Robin had had a long run, and for a guy of his age, wearing a suit to be presenting music for teenagers and getting over as long as he did was an achievement, but yeah, that was bound to end.

♪ And I'm finally getting hip to the American ruse ♪ - They called me back about a year or two later, wanted me to do the Saturday show.

That went on for about maybe a year.

That was it.

♪ Well well well, take a look around ♪ - [Show Announcer] Now here's the bird, Robin Seymour.

- Hi, everybody, the MC5.

We welcome them and everybody to "The Lively Spot."

The Frijid Pink tonight, Little Milton Campbell, then we'll have the MC5 back.

Billy Sha-Rae, The Bump, and many more.

And now from Nova Scotia, a lovely gal named Anne Murray.

It's a funny bit, isn't it?

The MC5, and now here's Anne Murray.

Great segue.

There's my phone.

Just hold on for a minute.

I'm sorry.

- I can't find anybody, in the years I've covered radio and TV in Detroit, who has a bad word to say about Robin Seymour.

He just was such a genuinely nice person, and he treated everybody, from the guy he met on the street, from the fan at the concert, to his contemporaries just the same way.

- [Group] Let's lever up with Dick Purtan.

♪ On WKNR, Keener 13 - So I got a call from the boss, and he said, "Guess what?

You're starting Monday on morning drive."

Time to get your head out of bed.

This is Keener.

And it was 5:00 a.m.

to 9:00 a.m.

Well who came in to do his three hour show?

Robin Seymour.

Yeah, we just make the switch.

And we got along famously.

The problem was, in my mind, I got to calling the alleyway behind the Keener studios, the Robin Seymour Memorial Freeway.

Well, Robin never really acknowledged that I was doing this, and so I kinda got the idea that he wasn't happy.

Robin left.

He went strictly to television.

It was Channel 9 from Windsor.

- Let's give a standing ovation for Robin Seymour.

- But about a year ago, we had a tribute to Robin, and that's where I realized what a warm terrific guy Robin Seymour was.

I did not know Robin very well at all.

I assumed he didn't like me because of the Robin CMR Memorial Freeway, and I was wrong.

♪ Bob-bobbin' with the Robin He said, oh, no, it was fun.

♪ Everybody fly sky high - There it is, "Detroit Remember When: Rockin' Robin Seymour."

So much to explore, but so little time.

Since the last "Swingin' Time" show, there have been so many changes.

Channel 9 in Windsor is now dedicated to Canadian viewers.

By the 1970s, FM radio took over music listeners from AM.

WKNR, Keener 13, became WNIC in 1972, and it's still with us today.

Robin would move on to other endeavors in California.

He ran a successful video production business, specializing in infomercials.

And as Dick Purtan mentioned, we held a tribute in the fall of 2019 in metro Detroit.

Friends and fans all gathered to salute Robin Seymour.

He was 93.

A book, a biography of his life, had just come out, and he was looking forward to coming back to Michigan again this year from Texas, where he had been living with his daughter, Deborah.

His return was not to be.

He died in April, 2020.

While the pandemic has stopped us from giving him a proper goodbye, here at Detroit Public Television, we're doing our part.

We hope this tribute and appreciation on the impact and talent of Robin Seymour brought you joy and put a smile on your face.

I'm Steve Schram for Detroit Public Television.

Thank you for watching.

- Wayne Cochran.

How do you do that, Wayne?

How do you do that?

I can't do that now.

I can do that, you know.

That's pretty good.

- Boogaloo.

- This is the first time in town at a big club, the 20 Grand, but you and the C.C.

Riders arrived and really are breaking it up.

- Yes, and Detroit and the whole area's beautiful, just beautiful, all the people.

- We're happy you came to town.

- All the folks are outta sight.

- How about that?

Where are you from are you now?

where's your hometown?

- Macon, Georgia.

- Jimmy Brown.

- Jimmy Brown, Otis Redding.

- Otis Redding.

- Don't forget my man.

- And Wayne Cochran.

Well, Wayne, again, we wanna say thanks to you, the C.C.

Riders everybody on the show that helped make it another happy visit.

We'll be seeing ya Monday and next Saturday, also.

Bye-bye, everybody.

(energetic music)